Southern League Premier South – Saturday 22nd February 2025
Basingstoke Town 0 vs 3 Havant & Waterlooville Attendance 762
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
Manager Dan Brownlie’s line-up for this important clash against Havant was: 1. Simon Grant, 2. Markus Johnson-Schuster, 3. JL Colwell, 4. James Dickson, 5.Scott Armsworth, 6. Billy Upton (Capt), 7. Jayden Brissett, 8. Sam Deadfield, 9. Liam Ferdinand, 10. Robbie Gallagher, 11. George Reid
On the bench: 12. Pele Koulsseoue, 14. James Clark, 15. Charlie Barlow, 16. Jack Ball, 17. James Clark
Referee – Kyfer Mayhew
Stoke spent the opening minutes of the game in Havant’s half, only for them to break clear and score the opening goal as a mix-up between Simon Grant and the Stoke centre-backs, allowed a Havant forward to slot the ball past Grant into the net. Basingstoke 0-1 Havant
Stoke’s first attempt on goal, came when Robbie Gallagher neatly cut in from the left wing, moving past two defenders, before shooting over the bar.
Stoke created the next attack, as Jayden Brissett neatly beat his defender on the left and sent over a low cross to where a Havant defender was able to block Liam Ferdinand’s attempt on goal.
Midway through the first-half the first real controversial refereeing decision occurred as from a Sam Deadfield floating free-kick, Billy Upton won the aerial battle against his marker and the keeper who missed the ball punched Upton in the head. The referee waived away the penalty and all discussion on the incident.
Stoke continued to press but failed to put anything of note on the Havant keeper.
With ten minutes to the break, Havant who had created very little attacking moves, broke forward and a shot from the edge of the penalty area, beat Grant, but smashed off the crossbar and away.
Stoke continued to push, but in added-time of the first-half, it was the visitors who forced another save out of the keeper. A minute later we went into the break a goal behind.
Halftime Score: Basingstoke Town 0 vs 1 Havant & Waterlooville
Havant started the second-half quickly, but a long-range shot flew comfortably wide, however thirty seconds later, controversial decision two appeared as a Havant through ball, saw Grant slide out and grab the ball, only for a Havant forward to then collide with Grant’s legs and the referee paused for two seconds, before awarding a Havant penalty. The referee then took the decision to show Simon Grant a red card and we were reduced to ten-men. George Reid was sacrificed, as Jack Ball came on and donned the goalkeeper’s jersey, and five minutes into the second-half, Havant converted the penalty, and we were two behind. Basingstoke 0-2 Havant.
Ten-men and two behind, we were then reduced to nine, after an incident, saw the linesman alert the referee, resulting in Billy Upton receiving a straight red card.
This forced us into two immediate further substitutions, as Jayden Brissett was replaced by James Clark, and Liam Ferdinand for Ben Cook.
Clark was called into immediate action, as Havant broke and sent over a low cross, but he was first to the ball and kicked the ball clear.
Havant were seeking blood, and their third goal from a stunning thirty-five yard swirling strike, that found the roof of the right-hand corner of the net. Basingstoke 0-3 Havant.
Havant quite rightly were controlling the game and continued to be on top over the next ten minutes, as we made our fourth change with Sam Deadfield replaced by Pele Koulsseoue (75 mins).
The game dead as a contest, Stoke made their fifth change with Robbie Gallagher replaced by Charlie Barlow (79 mins).
Despite the two-man advantage, Havant rarely put too much pressure on Ball in goal, and we played five minutes of added-time, before going down to our sixth home defeat of the season.
Full-time Score: Basingstoke Town 0 vs 3 Havant & Waterlooville
Seager 4 mins, Bradbury 50 min (Pen),
Anderson 61 mins,
Match Thought’s
There has been many games over recent seasons where referees have affected or ruined games, and today was one of those. A number of poor first-half decisions, were nothing compared to three decisions early in the second half. First the penalty decision, followed by Grant’s red card, then thirdly Billy Upton’s straight red card just minutes later basically killed the game as a contest.
Both Simon Grant & Billy Upton will now miss Tiverton (Away), Chertsey (Home) and Sholing (Away).
With other results in the league, we remain in fourteenth with ten games to go.
Up Next:
We are back on the road next Saturday (1st March), and back into Devon in a potential must-win game at Tiverton.
Match Report by Martin French..
English 
Polish 
Crazy refereeing decisions for a large part of the game not just the penalty and red cards. In the end another loss though.